A Charm of Powerful Trouble
by Argenteus Draco
Summary: "Hermione thought they might be cousins. The idea made her cringe. The last thing that Hermione needed in her life was another Malfoy." Short scenes woven into year five and onwards, featuring my original OC, Lyra Malfoy.


**Author's Note:** People who have followed my fanfiction for a long time - and I do mean a very long time, going back to roughly 2002, before a lot of my original (and in hindsight very bad) fanfiction was lost to the depths of the internet and the hard drive of a computer that hasn't been booted up in years - might recognize this character. She's been renamed, because her previous name was terrible and I don't even want to mention it here, and she's undergone a few character changes, but at heart she is still the same person: Draco Malfoy's twin sister.

Yes, dear reader, I was one of _those_ fanfiction writers.

Despite having since learned exactly what a Mary Sue was and why Lyra undoubtably was one, she has continued to hang around in my brain and recently reappeared thanks to some cosplay friends and fellow fanfic author skywalker05 who have the decency not to laugh when I say things like "Malfoy's twin sister" in a completely serious manner. I hope to continue to write short scenes involving Lyra, and unless some larger story begins to form, they will all be collected in this document.

Title borrowed with deepest respect to the Bard.

* * *

They arrived in the Great Hall to find Pigwidgeon bouncing excitedly up and down the Gryffindor table looking for them, having apparently misjudged the arrival of Hermione's _Daily Prophet_ owls as signs of his imminent replacement. He clamored toward Ron and hooted indignantly.

"I haven't got anything for you," Ron said, trying to brush the tiny owl away. "Oh for the love of– Go bother Ginny, maybe she has something for you to do."

But the tiny owl just seemed to take Ron's brusqueness as a sign of affection, and immediately flapped up to land on Ron's shoulder. Ron sighed, fed Pigwidgeon a small piece of bacon and gave his chest feathers a little stroke to try to appease him, then deposited him on the table again so that he could focus on his breakfast.

"Anything?" Ron asked Harry, who was assembling his own breakfast now that he had finished looking up and down the Slytherin table for the girl they had seen at the start of term feast, as he had done at every meal for the past week. But apparently she either ate very early or very late, as they hadn't seen her since.

"Potions with the Slytherins this morning," Hermione reminded them, pulling her toast out of the way before Pigwidgeon could nibble at it. "We'll know soon enough." Even Hermione had to admit that she was interested in the sudden and so-far unexplained presence of the new student, although she was still a little angry with the boys, who seemed more interested in the new girl's long blond hair and slim figure than in what she was doing at the school. Hermione had passed her twice in the hallways but hadn't been able to stop due to the flow of students, and both times the girl had been in animated discussion with Malfoy. To Hermione's thinking, this could only mean trouble. They had strikingly similar appearances, and Hermione thought they might be cousins. The idea made her cringe. The last thing that Hermione needed in her life was another Malfoy.

They walked down to Snape's classroom together and managed to get a table together in the back with only one extra seat, which was quickly filled by Neville. The new girl was the last to arrive, coming in just before what would have been considered late; which is to say, right in front of Snape. She aimed for the empty seat at Malfoy's table. Snape's lip curled.

"Not so fast, Miss Malfoy. Leave that seat for someone who needs more of my attention. Let's see…" He surveyed the class for a moment, and his eyes settled on Neville. "Mr. Longbottom, up front where I can keep an eye on you. Miss Malfoy, you may take his seat."

Suspicion number one confirmed, Hermione turned her attention to figuring out why Snape had separated the two Malfoys, and why he said it with an air that made it sound like a punishment for the girl as well as for Neville. For her part, the girl just regarded Snape cooly for a moment before lifting her bag up and carrying it toward the back of the room and Neville's now vacant seat, while Neville headed to the front of the room as though he were walking to the gallows. She set up her cauldron and laid out her ingredients as Snape wrote them on the blackboard, and began brewing her potion all in silence, only looking up to glare when Ron's potion began emitting thick purple fumes.

Hermione waved the smoke away and leaned over Ron's cauldron, trying to identify the problem. Had he added his lacewings too early? It looked like he hadn't been stirring it properly either, as it was too thick and had turned a sort of greyish-green color instead of the morning-sky-blue that it was supposed to be. But before she could do anything, a pale hand appeared over the cauldron and dropped in a handful of dittany stalk, which was not even in the recipe, and the potion stopped smoking and returned to normal, except for the viscosity, which remained pudding-like. Then she reached over Hermione's workstation and grabbed a pinch of the newt's eyes that Ron had been cutting up. She made a face.

"Those are way past their expiration," she said, turning up her nose and shaking her head. "Here." And she passed Ron a bottle of glistening black eyes. "I can afford more."

Ron looked a touch offended, and Hermione decided to intervene before he could cause a scene. "Thanks," she said, and the girl muttered an indistinct response and turned back to her own workstation. "I'm Hermione, by the way," she added, and the girl turned back around with a disparaging look.

"Yes, I know who you are."

Hermione was confused. "Do I know you?"

"No," the girl continued, as if explaining things to a very small child, or someone exceptionally stupid. "I only said that I know who you are, you don't need to introduce yourself." She pointed down the table at Harry, who was pretending to be absorbed in slicing his ginger because Snape was hovering not far away, and continued, "That's Harry Potter, the scar's a dead giveaway. You," she indicated Ron, and seemed to be at a brief loss for words, "You're… one of the Weasleys. I can't be expected to keep you all straight. And that would make you," and here her eyes flicked back to Hermione, "the mudblood who once punched my brother in the face." She gave Hermione another appraising look, and then added, "Thank you for that, by the way. Really, it made my whole week when I heard about it. Punched in the face by a girl, and a mudblood to boot."

Hermione felt a hot flush rising in her cheeks, and she saw Ron's ears were turning redder as the girl continued speaking. It took a great deal of effort to keep her voice level as she replied, "I don't think I caught your name in all of that," she said, turning back to her own potion. "And I'd appreciate it if you didn't use that word again."

"It's Lyra," she said, showing exactly zero remorse for having called Hermione a mudblood twice or any respect for her desire for an apology. "Lyra Lucia, because my father is a horribly vain man and my mother decided to curse us with a Black family tradition."

Hermione had no sympathy. She'd been endlessly made fun of herself all throughout her primary school career. It was a minor miracle that her unusual name fit in in the Wizarding world. And anyway, Snape was calling the class to order, and Hermione quickly set about bottling her potion, turning her back on Lyra.

"She's as vile as he is," Hermione commented as they left the dungeon. Lyra had caught up to her brother, and she and the other Slytherins were descending deeper in to the dungeons while Hermione, Ron and Harry climbed the stairs to the Charms corridor. Ron nodded agreement; even if it hadn't been intentional, he had taken the dig at his family's financial situation extremely personally, and Snape had taken ten points from Gryffindor for his admittedly dismal potion, which put him in an understandably bad mood. But Harry, Hermione noticed, had turned around to watch them leave, and only mumbled his own assent when he caught Hermione watching him.


End file.
